


Shadows Covering the Field

by voleuse



Category: The 4400
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-02-02
Updated: 2008-02-02
Packaged: 2017-10-04 02:28:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>Someone mentioned a city she had been in before the war, a room with two candles against a wall</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shadows Covering the Field

**Author's Note:**

> Set after 3.06. Title and summary adapted from Denise Levertov's _In Mind_.

Someone was shouting outside. Gary pulled the curtain back and watched as a boy sprinted past, his arms outstretched. Down the road, another kid threw a baseball, his arm whirling to follow the wild pitch.

"You should stay away from the window," Alana remarked.

Gary nodded, but he kept watching them play in the street. His hands twitched, responding to phantoms from the past. One of the kids waved his arms, hopped in his spot, farthest away. There was a scuffle, a wild shout, and then the ball was flying, soaring in an arc that would have meant nothing to Gary a year ago, but it took his breath away now.

He turned away before the ball descended, and Alana looked at him, all sympathy. She extended her hands in a silent offer, but he shook his head.

Gary settled into the corner armchair of the room and closed his eyes. He played the moment back in his mind, back and forth. A miss, the ball skidding cruelly past the kid's hands. A catch, the hide stinging on impact, a smile breaking free.

He could reach out, if he wanted, let the truth seep into his mind like echoes. He could piggyback onto the game outside and pretend he played alongside them. Instead, he tamped his powers down and pretended he could predict the future.

A miss. A catch. A miss.

Then Alana asked him what he thought they should do in days to come, and he dragged himself back to the world that was.


End file.
